Ukraine slams Putin's 'disdain' for peace process after he says 'whole of Ukraine' belongs to Russia
Ukraine said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had shown "disdain" for the peace process by suggesting Moscow might seize more Ukrainian territory, including the northeastern city of Sumy.
"Putin's cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for US peace efforts ... The only way to force Russia into peace is to deprive it of its sense of impunity," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X.
Putin on Friday told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russians and Ukrainians were one people, "and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours".
He cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border.
Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, also said he was not seeking the capitulation of Ukraine or denying Ukraine's sovereignty, but that Ukraine had to be neutral.
Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea are illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.
He has also said that Putin's terms for peace are akin to capitulation.
Putin said on Friday he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty, but he underscored that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it had also declared its neutrality.
Putin said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground if there was to be a chance of peace – Russia's shorthand for the reality of Russia's control over a chunk of Ukrainian territory bigger than the US state of Virginia.
"We have a saying, or a parable," Putin said. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours."
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France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
Ukraine slams Putin's 'disdain' for peace process after he says 'whole of Ukraine' belongs to Russia
Ukraine said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had shown "disdain" for the peace process by suggesting Moscow might seize more Ukrainian territory, including the northeastern city of Sumy. "Putin's cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for US peace efforts ... The only way to force Russia into peace is to deprive it of its sense of impunity," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said in a post on X. Putin on Friday told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russians and Ukrainians were one people, "and in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours". He cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border. Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, also said he was not seeking the capitulation of Ukraine or denying Ukraine's sovereignty, but that Ukraine had to be neutral. Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea are illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people. He has also said that Putin's terms for peace are akin to capitulation. Putin said on Friday he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty, but he underscored that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it had also declared its neutrality. Putin said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground if there was to be a chance of peace – Russia's shorthand for the reality of Russia's control over a chunk of Ukrainian territory bigger than the US state of Virginia. "We have a saying, or a parable," Putin said. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours."
France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
Putin says recession in Russia 'must not be allowed to happen'
Economists have warned for months of a slowdown in the Russian economy, with the country posting its slowest quarterly expansion in two years for the first quarter of 2025. The Kremlin has said this was to be expected after two years of rapid growth as it ramped up military expenditure to fund the Ukraine campaign, but officials including the country's economy minister have raised alarm about possible pain ahead. "Some specialists and experts are pointing to the risks of stagnation and even a recession," Putin told attendees at Russia's flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg. "This must not be allowed to happen under any circumstances," he said. "We need to pursue a competent, well-thought-out budgetary, tax and monetary policy," he added. The Russian economy grew in 2023 and 2024 despite the West's sweeping sanctions, with massive state spending on the military powering a robust expansion. But analysts have long warned that heavy public investment in the defence industry is no longer enough to keep Russia's economy growing and does not reflect a real increase in productivity. At his address to the forum on Friday, Putin was upbeat about Russia's economic prospects and denied the economy was being driven solely by the defence and energy industries. "Yes, of course, the defence industry played its part in this regard, but so did the financial and IT industries," he said. He said the economy needed "balanced growth" and called on officials to keep a "close eye on all indicators of the health of our industries, companies and even individual enterprises." © 2025 AFP
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Putin can't have a veto on Ukraine's EU membership: Parliament speaker Stefanchuk
Summing up his official visit to France, Stefanchuk says: 'I came with words of gratitude to the French people for the active support that we have been receiving. But also I came with words of request, a request that we need to continue this fight together, together with our friends all over the world, including Europe and France. I came with the words that what is extremely needed now in Ukraine, is the air defence system. This issue is connected with providing Ukraine more weapons to make sure that we can withstand this attack.' Stefanchuk elaborates; 'Let's be completely honest. War is a horrible math. Ukraine today is protecting the eastern flank of NATO from Russia's assault. And we are paying a terrible price for this. We're paying with the lives of our best sons and daughters. War includes the financial component, the military component and, unfortunately, the human component. And we must understand that, in order to win this war, we need to have all these components filled in. And of course, we are going to work with our partners to make sure that if we have less financial support (from the US), we'll be asking Europe to increase its support for Ukraine.' Stefanchuk adds that he also came to France to discuss the issue of frozen Russian assets, and 'legal solutions' to unlocking the assets. Many EU governments – including France – do not want to set an international legal precedent by fully using the assets. But Stefanchuk argues that if this is not done, a different kind of precedent will be set. 'We must find the mechanism to make sure that the one who violates the law is made accountable for these violations,' he states. 'If this is not done, then in the near future, anyone who has the strength, the power, and has no conscience, will do whatever they like, knowing that their assets are guaranteed. No! We must create the precedent according to which every criminal must know that they will pay for war with their money.' We turn to Ukraine's EU accession process, which has run into Hungarian opposition, despite the European Commission saying that Ukraine has 'done its homework' in three negotiating clusters. 'Ukraine, despite the war, is fulfilling all its obligations to the European Union. We adopt the laws, we carry out reforms. We are not asking for some excuses for Ukraine, for some simplified track,' Stefanchuk asserts. 'We honestly take our path, but we are also counting on the same kind of honesty from our European partners. And we want to make sure that Hungary is not a country that is Putin's veto on Ukraine's accession to the EU. Putin is not an EU member. He has no right of veto in the EU. This, I believe, is becoming a big threat for all the countries of the European Union, for all the NATO countries, because Putin is using some countries to block the alliance decisions. So this is a huge challenge.' Stefanchuk is adamant there is 'no backtracking at all' on anti-corruption reforms, despite the country slipping slightly in Transparency International's last Corruption Perceptions Index (2024). 'The situation has changed', Stefanchuk remarks. 'The Ukraine of 2025 is a different country from the Ukraine of 2005. Today we can hold top officials accountable, demonstrating to others that the fight against corruption is irreversible in our country. For example, the ex-head of the Supreme Court received a suspicion, and a couple of ministers received this notification of suspicion. That's the first time ever in the history of Ukraine. Ukraine's President Zelensky, the prime minister, and I, we all have a zero-tolerance approach to corruption.' Many countries were deeply concerned about Israel's attack on Iran on June 13. But Stefanchuk reminds viewers that 'Iran's Shahed drones terrorise Ukrainians every night. Of course, the weaker Iran and North Korea are, and the weaker Russia is, the better it is for us. The less peaceful citizens will suffer and the less Ukrainian infrastructure will suffer, the closer we will be to our common victory.'
